A Secret too Hard to Keep
by Tailsthezorro
Summary: Tails has always been a girl, and up until her twelfth birthday that wasn't as hard of a secret as it sounds, but afterward, she finds it hard to keep up with as certain events threaten to give away all her hard work.
1. Introduction

-I don't own Sonic or anything to do with it. If I did, it wouldn't be a fan fiction.

Summery: Tails has always been a girl, and up until her twelfth birthday that wasn't as hard of a secret as it sounds, but afterward, she finds it hard to keep up with as certain events threaten to give away all her hard work.

As the sun rose, the young fox named Mary Powers was softly awoken by the light and heat on her face. She brought her hands up to rub her eyes off and they gently stroked her muzzle as they came down. Her eyelids opened to reveal two large blue eyes, still showing signs of fatigue. The young girl walked over to her dresser. Because she was only four and a girl, the orphanage wouldn't let her wear anything besides the little dresses they thought appropriate for her. It would still be four more years until she was able to wear skirts, and girl were never allowed to wear pants, which were only for boys, or shorts, which they deemed to trashy. Picking out a yellow dress, she headed towards the restroom.

She removed her nightshirt and began to brush her fur. The task took a long time, especially when she reached her two tails. After she was done, she put on the dress and redid her hair on top and looked at herself in the mirror, everything seemed to be perfect. But, Mary, or Tails as she preferred to be called, never liked looking in the mirror. Her reflection showed a goody goody that would probably marry early and take care of a truckload of kits while her husband went to make a name for himself. Frankly, Tails wanted nothing to do with that kind of life. In her dreams, she was always one of the Freedom Fighters, which was the new group that was forming in the Knothole. But, by the time she was out of this place, the Freedom Fighters would probably already full or have no need for someone without any training… Heading down to breakfast, Mary tried to move her thoughts elsewhere.

Sadly for the young fox, now that she had gotten on the subject in her mind, she couldn't stop thinking about it. She could always mentally solve problems others had given up on and was by far the only person who could solve a Rubix cube by age four, so why couldn't she figure out this problem? When she was done eating, she went out into the yard to see the privileged people line up for auditions into the very place she wanted to be. Even if she could sneak off into that line, she was too young now to even try out and she had no training. If only she could that Sonic guy, who apparently was the most promising person, to teach her how to fight. But, then maybe that was it, if she could get him to take her on as a student, she would be half way on the team even before she was done!

But, getting him to teach her would be a larger task then just asking him and the orphanage would never let a girl spend so much time with a boy that much older… once again, Tails knew she had given herself the answer to her problem. If she did things exactly right, she would get to both leave this place and get him to train her. Alls she had to do was pretend she was a boy. They would never think that a regular boy was their missing girl, and there were more boys on the Freedom Fighters anyway. She went back to her room to start working on the details.

She took out the big, elbow long gloves she had for formal occasions and sowed the length of it folded over to imitate the thick based gloves boys wore. After that, she snuck to the boy's section of the orphanage and took a pair of shoes out of the barrel where the extra pairs were stored. To her knowledge, that was all boys wore, besides sox, which she already had non-gender specific pairs. She put the items in a bag and hid it under her bed. When it was time to go bed, Tails pretended to go to sleep. She already knew from past experiences when the adults checked up on everybody and she had decoy from last time. Right after the second check made, Tails dashed out of the building with the bag in hand and decoy in place. They wouldn't know she was gone until about noon, when they went to check on everyone who didn't go to breakfast, so she had until then for the rest of her plan to work. She took off her nightshirt, tossed it into a dumpster, and put on the gloves and "new" shoes, then she was on her way to find Sonic and hopefully win him over.

Tails saw Sonic and Sally heading towards her direction and she knew it was now or never. She sat down on the ground softly cried. When Sally and Sonic got there they went over to see what was wrong.

"Hey, don't cry, what's the matter?" Sonic asked in a surprisingly caring voice.

"I… I… can't find my dad," Tails sniffled.

"Well, do you know where you live?" Sally asked.

"No, my dad left me at home alone to go 'sniffle' try out for the Fry food fighters," Tails said, hoping she wasn't over doing it.

"Hold on a sec, K?" Sonic asked, "Sally come over here a minute," he requested, going a little ways away.

"I don't remember any foxes trying out today, especially one with two tails…" Sonic said.

"I know, he was probably abandoned…" Sally said, assuming Tails was a boy due to the clothes the fox was wearing. "We should bring him to the orphanage."

"No way, I hate that place. Hey! What if I took care of him, I mean, I don't want him thinking negatively about fighters and besides, my hut has room for two," Sonic said.

"All right, but I am going to help you take care of him, I don't want you warping the poor boy," Sally said.

They returned to where Tails was and Sonic scooped her up. "You want to come with for a little while? I'll help you find your father," he offered.

"Okay," she said, knowing her plan had worked. The three went to Sonic's house and they tucked in Tails. Sally gave Sonic a kiss on the cheek and left to her house.

Hope you liked it, this is my first fanfic, but if you want to flame go ahead, I can take it, but I really would like any positive opinions anyone has. This chapter was probably longer then some of the others, so whatever that means to you.


	2. Chapter 1: The Day Before the Storm

-Even at this point, chapter one, I still don't own Sonic or any related characters, crazy isn't it?

((When people refer to Tails they will use him/he ect, when Tails refers to herself she will use her/she ect))

Tails woke up to a morning not unlike many others. Right now, she was still eleven today, but tomorrow was her birthday and she would finally be twelve and old enough to go on her first long solo mission as a Freedom Fighter. But, since she was not a mourning person, she hadn't woken up with the amount of pep implied by the day before a kid's birthday. Tails took out her brush and started brushing her fur, which was thin except around her chest, which she knew she wanted a bit longer so she could blame the very small increase her chest had gotten because of puberty. She had kept being a girl a secret since she was four and one small obstacle wasn't about to ruin it. When she had finished, she put on her gloves, sox, and shoes and went to breakfast.

"Hey little buddy," Sonic said to his surrogate little brother, "I'm sure someone can't wait for today to end."

"Nope, tomorrow should be fun and all, but it's the next day I'm really excited about," Tails said, tomorrow would be the day of solitary preparation for her mission.

"Well don't get too excited, your going to need a clean head, I know I did," Sonic confessed.

"Naw, it will probably be a piece of cake," Tails said jokingly.

"Oh yeah?" Sonic said, "Well I'll have to make sure we pick out a mission worthy of your stature, oh mighty one," Sonic kidded back.

The duo started easting, neither being real conversationalists, especially when eating. Sonic finished first and went to go take a bath in the river, leaving Tails with the dishes, as he usually found a sly way to do. But, since there were only two of them, it never bothered Tails that much; besides, it was the least she could do since Sonic had given her a real home and a real life. Tails finished the dishes and started putting them away as they clanked together. She wondered what she should do next. Today was really just there to take up time and she had already passed out invitations, pre ordered food and drinks, and all of the other party related items. She decided that she could just take a walk until something better turned up. She stepped outside and went wherever her feet took her.

There was a nice breeze and it was just the right temperature. Three days ago had been the first day of spring and everything was blooming. It made Tails real thankful she didn't get allergies like some poor creatures. She wondered how days right before exciting events always seemed to be so boring. The most excitement she had gotten was when a stray Frisbee hit her in the side of the head, which isn't the ideal kind of surprise. Tails decided to stop by Rotors garage, which must be one of the best places in town in the fox's opinion.

"Hey, Rotor, what are you up to?' Tails asked as she entered the shop.

"Ah, not much, just doing a little maintenance to some old stuff, how's things with you?" He said from the other end of the shop.

"Well besides counting down the minutes before tomorrow and the next day, nothing," Tails admitted.

"I guess that's why they call it the calm before the storm, but I guess this time the storm is a good thing," Rotor said.

"Yeah, still doesn't make it right," Tails said.

"Naw, I guess not, but that's life," Rotor said.

"Well I guess I'll be going," Tails said leaving.

"See yah tomorrow," he said back.

Tails was on her way home. She had actually taken a pretty long walk and between that and the distance between her's and Sonic's house and Rotors, the sun was already well on its decent and it was dinner time. She walked into the house to find Sonic and Sally already seated, but with no food on their plates. By Sonic's expression, Sally had forced him to wait.

"Bout time you get back," Sonic says, half jokingly, half not.

"Yeah, I was over at Rotors," Tails said as she sat down.

"So, Tails, are you excited about tomorrow?" Sally asked.

"Yeah, aunt Sally, I just wish it would hurry up and come," Tails said.

"Not to long now," Sally said, noticing that Sonic had already started eating and would probably not contribute to the conversation for a while.

She put some of the food on her plate and started eating as well, as did Tails. By the time they were done, and Tails and Sally had done the dishes, due to Sonic complaining that he though he had a splinter in his foot and they all knew how important his feet were, it was somewhere around 8:30 or 9:00. Tails, hoping to believe the old rhyme about early to bed… turned in early.

And there you go, if this one wasn't as good as the last, that's probably because its hard to fill in the time before a party, the next chappie and the following ones will be better. Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 2: Party and Preparations

-Still don't own Sonic, nor related characters, imagine that?

The party was huge and everyone Tails had invited had come. Some of the people in the Knothole had told her they were a good band and she had reluctantly agreed. Even though she had expected the worst, they were actually pretty good. She went around, saying hello to everyone there, so they knew she appreciated their presence. She walked over to Bunnie, who was near the punch bowl.

"Hey Bunnie, thanks for coming," Tails said.

"No problem, Sugah, nice turn out by the way," Bunnie replied back

"I know! Everyone that got an invitation made it," the fox said, very happy to hear it.

"Well I'll see you around, honey," Bunnie said, going off to talk with some other people when she noticed Tails still had many people to talk to.

Tails had a similar conversation with a lot of the guests. She even talked to a good amount of people she didn't know. When she felt satisfied, she started to look for Sally and Sonic. They must have blended in awfully well, for even with her acute sight, she couldn't see them. She walked around the people, looking for the couple. Finally, she found them.

"Hey guys," she said.

"Hey little buddy, I see your no slouch in the popularity department," Sonic said in his usual teasing sort of way.

"Yeah, I didn't think you knew so many people," Sally said.

"Well, I think my plus one invitations helped," Tails admitted.

"Still, to know half these many people, that not too bad," Sonic said, now in a comforting sort of way. Probably thinking he could have said something wrong, not realizing it.

"Yeah, so how are you guys liking the party yourself?" Tails asked, curious.

"So far, I would have to say a job well done," Sally complimented.

"Good, it took me a long time to get everything settled."

"Well, did you prepare yourself for the last event?" Sonic asked, referring to the very part Tails liked the most.

"Yep, I'm ready for it. Do either of you know what time it is?" Tails asked, not seeing a clock.

Sally looked at her watch, "Its 8:49, wow, already?" she asked herself.

"Wow, only eleven more minutes for that time to arrive," Sonic said, "I'm sure you got what it takes," he gave her a thumbs up as he said the last part/

"Definitely, you should have no problem if you just keep your head clear," the brown squirrel assured.

"Thanks Sonic, Aunt Sally, for everything you've done," the Tails said.

"Ok, its time, boys, go take your seats," Sally said as she looked at her watch and headed toward the front. Tails and Sonic followed her and Tails took her seat at the very front while Sonic took his seat that was the closest guest seat.

"Attention everyone, if you will be seated I would like to start the ceremony," Sally said. Unofficially, it was her job to do this kind of thing, since she was the leader of the Freedom Fighters and the head political figure in Knothole. When everyone was seated, she started off on the speech she used for every newly of age freedom fighter candidate. This way, she wouldn't get emotional if she knew the person and that was really going to come in handy this time.

"As you know, we are here to recognize Tails, who has passed the preliminary tests needed to do the final exam of a Freedom Fighter. Now of age, it is his job to go to the twelve beacons we have on Mobius and press the button on the top. If any of them are broken, he will be expected to fix it. When the button is pressed it will send us a signal here that it was completed. The candidate will be able to take four items of any nature with him as well as a bad of food provided and will have a maximum of two and a half months to complete it, since these beacons are not close together. We have had people pull it off at the very last minute as well as one who finished it in a week, both members are equally valued and so shall be Tails, regardless of his score. He may start as soon as the sun rises in the mourning and upon that hour the clocks will start timing. Tails, please come up to the front and take the bag that contains your food, a map, compass, and the coordinates of the beacons," Tails came up and accepted the bag, "now, Tails must spend the rest of the night in solitude and reflection of the task at hand. Go now and prepare for the sun's first light," It was then that Tails left the party and returned home, "The rest of you may finish enjoying the party," the people clapped at Sally's speech and she joined Sonic again.

Tails began gathering up everything she thought she would need and put them into a pile. She already had been given three of the four items she could bring and alls that was left to decide was which chosen object she would pick. She picked out one from the pile and placed it in the bag. Tradition said that no item could be taken except the four, so she left her brush and other such items. She hoped it wouldn't take her the whole two and a half months, but she knew it would take longer then a week.

The next chapter will reveal the item she is bringing and will start her adventure, please review, if you want to flame, please tell me what I could improve.


	4. Chapter 3: The Trial Begins

Thanks everyone who reviewed, this one goes out to you guys!

Still don't own Sonic nor related characters, get used to it

Tails woke up and got herself ready to go on her initiation. The sun wasn't up yet, but she could tell it was the first day of her trip. She brushed herself off for the last time in a while. She tool one last look at herself in the mirror and grabbed her possessions. Tails closed the door and left behind the house. She couldn't look back or she might have second thoughts. She had trained for this for a long time and she wasn't about to get all emotional about it now. Even with those thoughts in mind, a tear ran across her muzzle. She kept walking on.

The first marker was to the west and seemed to be in a very secluded area. From there, it would be a short distance to the next three, and then a sizable gap in between four and five. In fact, she estimated it was the biggest one of the whole adventure. She had calculated she could finish the trip in about three weeks, given her top speed and a couple of extra leeway hours to ensure accuracy. She spun at her top speed and made her way up to the beacon. She had to pull up the cap that disguised it before she could press the button. She was right on schedule. The next two were finished in the same fashion. It wasn't until the fourth beacon that she even encountered any other moving object.

Tails approached the area slowly, trying to stay out of eyesight. She hid in the spare parts that covered the junkyard like area as a SWAT bot approached. As it passed, she jumped out and kicked it to the ground smashing it. Just then, four bots she hadn't seen closed in from different directions, each one letting out an alarm. She had to work fast, as she could see others coming. She rushed the on coming attack and was able to beat them. But, she had to touch the beacon before she left for safety. She thought she saw the cap and she sprinted to it.

Just as her hand touched it, a sudden beam blasted Tails. She fell backward and slid a good couple inches, while being cut by the scrap on the floor. She spun dashed and hit in to the robot, but was hit from behind by another beam, causing her to be pushed forward, she tripped on a pipe. Just as she fell off and thudded on to the true ground, the heavy pipe slid off and fell on her legs. The pain was blinding, and her wounds were getting to her. Before she blacked out, she heard several strange sounds and felt a robotic hand clamp around her, and it was far from the familiar feel of Bunnie.

Tails awoke to find herself in a chair that reminded her of a doctor's. She wasn't bound, but her bones didn't feel like they could move either. She looked down and found that her left leg was in a full cast while the other was in a splint. Besides that, she seemed fine, though her body had something different about it that she couldn't place. She remembered everything that happened. Surely she had been taken prisoner, but... Why wouldn't they have at least tied her up?

"I see someone finally woke up," an obviously male, though young, voice said. A

As he came closer, Tails could see that he was a fox, too. He had gray or silvery hair, and a robotic right forearm and hand. He looked about her age, though probably a little older. He put a glove over his hand, and went back to looking at her. Tails felt funny when she looked at him. An odd feeling that she hadn't had before…

"Don't worry, femme. The right will be healed by tomorrow and while the left was definitely broken, it should be ok soon enough."

"Femme?" Tails asked, not understanding what must be a slang term "How long have I been out of it?"

"Well, about your first question, femme is what we call girls over here. Well its what I call them and I'm the only one here... now. Anyway, I think it has been about a good week and a half. Seems after you blacked out you were hit in the head by several pieces of debris."

Tails was shocked by so much of what she heard. First off, he was one of the first people to ever know she was a girl and a whole week and a half!

"What makes you think I'm a girl?" She asked, acting offended.

"Well," he said slowly as his cheeks reddened a bit. He regained his composure, "Part of me just knows, I guess its cause we are both foxes and besides that… well… you have a certain… feature… about your… chest," he finished, very much not amused at having to say that.

Her chest… what was he talking about? 'I still have time before I develop like that' she thought as she looked down at herself. That's what had been different! She must have been too groggy to notice, but where her crème white fur was, was the noticeable beginning of her chest. For the first time in her life, she felt naked. She had no idea what to say. Well, at least he didn't seem to be enjoying her displeasure…

"My name's Tails, what's yours?" she asked him. If she was still stuck like this, she might as well know his name.

"Name's Tucker," he replied.

"Why do you live out here alone?"

"We my grandpa escaped with me and my dad from Mobius a long time ago when I was still a pup. He was a great doctor and my dad a retired soldier. A virus that started in males but had a worse effect on females had killed both my grandma and mom. Both of them taught me their trade until we were found by the SWATs. I was the only survivor and I had to replace the forearm and hand I lost myself. I built in a small cannon and have been wrecking bots ever since. You're the first person I've seen in at least two months. So, why are you here."

His story brought a tear to her eye. He was more alone then she was. She told him her story. She didn't even leave out pretending to be a boy. Besides, the only thing there was to do was swap stories.

All right, so I didn't say what the forth item was… honestly it really doesn't matter, in fact, say its whatever you want.

Also, I know puberty takes longer then a week and a half, she had been changing for a while, and if you remember she had been covering up he earlier… progress before, and hey, its spring, all kinds of crazy things happen.

I don't know how some of you feel about original characters, but I didn't want to use a real one for this case. If any of you didn't figure it out, he is a gray fox, while Tails is not, if a hedgehog and a squirrel can get together, then a two kinds of foxes should not be hard to grasp.


	5. Chapter 4: The Healing Complete

Another Chapter, Yeay!

Hmm, do I own Sonic or related characters? Let me check… -runs around looking through files- of coarse not!

--

Tails sat in the same chair she had been secluded to for the past 3 days. The week was over and tucker had said he would check out her leg when he came back from whatever he did during the day. She had very much enjoyed meeting him. As it turned out, he was only a few months older then she is, and was pretty much just as smart. They had been exchanging mechanical tips when they weren't telling more about themselves and Tails really started feeling close to the guy.

Then, Tails heard the sliding door open and saw tucker walk in. As usual, he was very sweaty and was slightly panting, but just slightly.

"So, ready to take a look at that leg?" Tucker asked.

"More then you could know," Tails replied.

"Well, don't be surprised if it smells really really bad," he started, "It was too broken to be taken out for a breather."

"Oh, ok…" Tails said. She hadn't had a broken limb in her life, but she guessed it smelling made since. Since it was like putting a giant sock there for days without changing it.

Tucker started walking toward her after he had grabbed a towel and wiped himself off. He put on the near by disinfectant liquid and began to unwrap the wound. As he had said, a nasty stench diffused through the room as he did so. When he was done, he put on some rubber gloves and started pressing in different locations, asking if it hurt. She was glad to say none of them did.

"Okay, well then let's get you into the bath tub, while I disinfect the house," he said with a smile.

He watched as she attempted to stand up, her leg gave out from not being used to being walked on in a while, but he caught her and helped her all the way until she was sitting on the side of the tub, he then left, muttering something about the smell of rotting flesh. Tails turned on the hot water and was surprised to see it instantly turn hot. Odd he would have that great of a water system out here. She got it to be the right temperature and when it filled, she slid in.

The warm water felt like heaven on her body. She made sure to scrub everywhere, since her leg turned out not to be the only placed that had picked up a bit of a smell. After she was done, she let the water drain and looked at herself in the small mirror. Two weeks hadn't changed her face much, but she could tell that it was obvious she wasn't a boy. She had known this would come, ever since she had had traces of a difference about a month ago. She wondered how she was going to tell all the others when she got back from the test… Oh wait, the test!

Tails walked out of the bathroom and found Tucker.

"Tucker, I have to go, I still need to finish my Freedom Fighter test I told you about," She saw his ears go down, even though his facial expression didn't change, "why don't you come with me? There's no reason to stay out here alone."

Tucker seemed to be debating something in his head. He looked torn, but finally decided to make a decision.

"You know, your right, I'll go with you back to wherever you live, we can leave as soon as you want as far as I'm concerned."

"Well, I got to go as soon as possible," Tails explained.

"I'll go get some things," Tucker said as he left to go pack.

(In The Knothole)

"I wonder whats taking him so long?" Sonic said to Sally.

"It hasn't been that long, besides, I'm sure he's on his way back this very instant. We all can't be as fast as you, Sonic," She replied.

"Well, Tails was probably the closest you got to that, something must have snagged him."

"If you say so."

--

Well, I know that one was shorter then the others, but please hold off on throwing the rotten fruit.

Anyway, tell me if you have any concerns, or perhaps even something I could do better. Constructive criticism is good for the soul.


End file.
